A/N: So, I wrote a chapter (chapter 5) in my story Truth, Love, and Evolution where Blaine gets slushied. The actual chapter covers the event itself, and people's reactions at the time, with Blaine's overall feelings, but doesn't show Kurt's reaction to finding out. A couple of people asked me in the reviews if I'd write that moment.
I said no, I thought it would be stronger left the way it was. Restrained.
Then I left a blank document open on my desktop for a month.
In conclusion: I am a liar.
Here's after (so this is canon with TLE). I recommend you go read at least that chapter, if you haven't already (Chapter 5: Sugar), but I think you can probably read it without. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. I just make them do things.
It was twenty minutes since Wes had casually let it slip, and life in Blaine and Kurt's dorm room was anything but calm.
"It's really not that big of a deal." Blaine made his voice as soothing as possible.
This had absolutely no effect whatsoever.
"Not a BIG DEAL?" Kurt was pacing in front of Blaine, who was lying on his bed in a pose which he hoped conveyed casual innocence. Their dorm room had never seemed so small. "You got slushied! At McKinley! When you came to visit me. It's my fault, and – did they hurt you? Please tell me that you'd have told me if – why didn't you tell me? I've have made you stop coming, I wouldn't have put you at risk -"
"That is precisely why you never found out."
Kurt looked at him like he was insane. Which, considering his own mental state at that point, was a little bit funny. So Blaine snickered.
"It is not funny! I can't believe that I put you at risk like that – you could have gotten attacked, or -"
Blaine's reply was a little more heated than he intended. "Kurt... you did get attacked after that. They beat you until you were unconscious and just fucking left you there. There was no way I was going to let a ruined tie mean I wasn't there for you in case something like that happened. I told Mercedes and Finn that -"
He realized his mistake immediately and winced as Kurt's eyes seemed to triple in size.
"MERCEDES AND FINN KNEW ABOUT THIS?"
"Ah, yes, well... they kind of saw it happen. And they helped me afterwards – Finn gave me a shirt."
"AND THEY - YOU – THEY DIDN'T TELL ME? I AM GOING TO -"
"Perhaps you should sit down," Blaine suggested calmly. This only served to make Kurt pace faster. He started muttering agitatedly.
"I knew I shouldn't have let you come visit me – I shouldn't have had you come talk to Karofsky. It got you too much attention – in that uniform, being all suave and official, and handsome and 'Blaine: prep school poster boy'. I might as well have painted a target on you - you must have been noticed by every -"
"You think I'm handsome?" Blaine grinned.
"The point," Kurt evaded, "is that you should have told me – I can't believe I let you run that risk - what if it hadn't been a slushie? What if they'd found you and -" he sat down on his own bed, eyes wide with horror at the thought. He looked Blaine in the eyes. "What if they'd -"
"But they didn't.' Blaine reminded him. "They just poured a drink on me. A cherry flavored drink." He went to go sit next to his friend. "And if anything bigger had happened, I would have told you. And if I'd had any indication that they were capable of... what they did to you, I would have chained you to my bed rather than let you go back there ever again."
There was another silence while they both considered that, and the many ways it could be taken.
When he finally spoke Kurt's voice was quiet, and truthful, and so strained that Blaine thought he might actually be in pain. "If they'd...if I ever lost you, I think I'd go crazy."
He masked the emotion in his eyes with a short, humorless chuckle. "Yeah? I'm sure you'd be fine. But you won't have to. And..."- his eyes darkened slightly - "as someone who almost lost you...I feel the sa-I was – I've been there."
There was a long silence as Kurt looked at him, and then Blaine finally met his eyes. Hazel was tinged with sadness and the darkness of a memory.
"When I got the – the call – where you were –the hospital - I started driving, and I – they didn't tell me how much was wrong. It was Mercedes, and she didn't know – she just said that you'd been found at school, and you'd been beaten and..." It was so hard for him to find the words. They didn't exist. "I thought you might be – and I swear to god, Kurt, I thought I was going mad. I was driving, but I wasn't seeing anything except you, and hearing the last conversation we'd had, and wondering if we'd ever – if I'd ever...and then I was waiting for so long, and my mind was – I was crazy, Kurt. Insane. Trapped in the false memories of what I could have done... and then when you woke up, and looked at me, and smiled..."- Blaine closed his eyes, like he wanted to soak in the light of that moment - "it was... it was good. It was... perfect. Everything was perfect." He looked back at his friend. "And I'm glad I didn't tell you, because you would've pushed me away in some misguided attempt to protect me, when you're the one I was supposed to protect. Even though I failed, I could still be there. So... a tie... for that? Yeah, it was worth it."
They weren't touching each other, but the intimacy of that moment was astonishing. Kurt took a moment to drink in the proximity, the comfort, and the look in Blaine's eyes (what was it? Friendship and fear at the memories... or something else?), before he picked out something that needed to be addressed.
"You didn't 'fail to protect' me." His tone was slightly incredulous. "You're my friend, not my bodyguard. And having you – you remember. I told you. You... you saved me." Blaine smiled and opened his mouth to argue, but Kurt wasn't done. "But you still should have told me about the slushie. And Mercedes and Finn are in for it."
Blaine's slight smile disappeared immediately at this last proclamation. "No! I mean... you can be mad at me, if you want, but... I asked them not to tell. They didn't know me that well, and... they went out on a limb, because they knew I didn't want to lose you – have you try to make yourself lose me. I appreciate that a lot."
Kurt looked frustrated for a moment. "I'm... I'm not mad at you anymore."
Blaine smiled instinctively at his reluctance. "You say that like it's a disappointing, terrible thing."
"I want to be mad at you. I really, really do. And I think you– I wish you'd told me. But..."
"I'm just too adorable and right to stay mad at for long?"
Kurt rolled his eyes. "Sure...something like that."
"Excellent."
"Does Wes know?"
"What happened? No, I never told him. He just noticed cherry in my hair. Why?"
"So...my friends were the only people that knew..."
"I told you, I asked them not to tell because I -"
"No, I know. I just meant... you tell Wes and David everything. They're your best friends."
"I didn't tell you. It seemed... right."
"Oh."
"Plus Wes has a pretty big mouth."
"True."
Blaine's smile lingered as he asked Kurt the question he really needed to know the answer to. Well, the most immediate one, anyway.
"So... are you really not mad at me?"
Kurt was frowning again. "No. And it's really annoying."
He laughed. "Fantastic. Then you should probably be getting to math class before Baker has some kind of fit." He grabbed his own books off the desk and glided out of the room, pausing as he reached the door. He only turned just enough that Kurt could hear him.
"It was worth it, you know. Even if... it would have been worth it."
He didn't wait for a reply, leaving Kurt sitting with his mouth slightly open, bag in hand, wondering if this guy was for real, or if he was some kind of robot sent from outer space to make all other humans seem completely inadequate by comparison.